Date: 13 April 2026
Inspired by the intervention of Ruchika Drall, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, India, during the GGGI-GGKP webinar on Embedding Just Transitions into Long-Term Climate Strategies
At the GGGI-GGKP webinar on Embedding Just Transitions into Long-Term Climate Strategies, India’s experience offered a development-first perspective on what it means to translate long-term climate ambition into nationally appropriate action. The intervention by Ruchika Drall, Deputy Secretary at India’s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, situated just transition not as a separate policy track, but as an approach that must be embedded across climate planning, development priorities, sectoral missions, and social programs.
Development and climate action in parallel
India’s Long-Term Low-Emission Development Strategy is rooted in the principles of equity, climate justice, sustainable development, and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. This framing is central to India’s long-term climate pathway because the country’s transition must respond to both global climate goals and national development realities.
As a developing country home to one-sixth of the world’s population, India continues to face significant needs related to energy access, housing, mobility, livelihoods, and economic growth. At the same time, its historical contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions remains low, while its vulnerability to climate impacts is high. This makes adaptation and resilience central to India’s planning, alongside low-carbon development.
“Climate action cannot be pursued in isolation” noted Ms. Drall during her intervention. It must be aligned with national development priorities, poverty eradication, energy access, and the need to provide affordable services and opportunities for people across the country.
India submitted its LT-LEDS in 2022, setting out a long-term vision to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. The strategy presents a development-first, inclusive, and pragmatic pathway, rather than a one-size-fits-all model. It was developed through extensive inter-ministerial consultation, with inputs from line ministries, state governments, research institutions, and other stakeholders, helping ensure alignment with broader national policies and priorities.
Seven transitions, with justice embedded across sectors
India’s LT-LEDS is structured around seven key transitions: low-carbon electricity systems; low-carbon transport systems; sustainable urbanization; low-carbon industrial systems; carbon dioxide removal and emerging technologies; enhanced forest and tree cover; and finance, technology, and innovation as cross-cutting enablers.
These transitions are intentionally sequenced and calibrated to safeguard energy security, affordability, and economic growth while progressively reducing emissions intensity. Within this framing, just transition is not treated as a single standalone chapter. Instead, it is reflected across sectors, even where the terminology only may differ.
In the energy sector, India is scaling up renewable energy at an unprecedented pace while recognizing the need for a gradual and managed transition, particularly in coal-dependent regions. In transport, policies on electric mobility, ethanol blending, alternative fuels, public transport, and modal shift are designed not to reduce emissions, but also to strengthen domestic manufacturing capacity and job creation.
In urban development, energy-efficient buildings, climate-resilient urban planning, and improved waste management contribute to mitigation while improving quality of life. In industry, the focus on energy efficiency, electrification, green hydrogen, and circular economy approaches also considers the needs of MSMEs and hard-to-abate sectors, with attention to competitiveness and job retention. In forestry and land use, interventions aim to enhance carbon sinks while supporting rural livelihoods and community participation.
India’s approach frames just transition not as an isolated policy area, but as something that must be built into the country’s wider development architecture.
As Ms. Drall put it: “India's experience demonstrates that the just transition cannot be a standalone policy. It must be mainstreamed into the developmental planning, sectoral missions and social programs.”
Finance as the critical enabler
Among the key enablers of India’s long-term transition, finance was presented as one of the most important and one of the most difficult. India estimates that it will require trillions of dollars in investment by mid-century. The availability, affordability, and accessibility of finance will strongly influence whether the transition is just and inclusive, or uneven and disruptive.
From India’s perspective, international climate finance remains critical, particularly concessional and grant-based finance. Support for technology transfer and capacity-building is also essential to enable low-cost and scalable solutions. Financing frameworks must go beyond mitigation outcomes and also address adaptation, resilience, and the social dimensions of the transition.
The role of multilateral development banks and climate funds is therefore central. Their mandates and financing approaches need to align more closely with long-term transition pathways, especially for developing countries facing capacity and resource constraints.
Moving from long-term vision to action
The discussion also connected India’s experience to GGGI’s insight brief, Just Transition in LT-LEDS: A Review of G20 Submissions. The brief was welcomed as a useful evidence-based contribution that examines how just transition considerations are reflected across governance, workforce, regional development, financing, and monitoring dimensions.
The findings resonate with broader international experience: while many G20 countries acknowledge just transition principles, long-term strategies often still lack specificity, financing roadmaps, and monitoring frameworks. Future iterations of LT-LEDS could therefore benefit from more sectoral and region-specific transition pathways, better identification of affected communities and workers, stronger links between LT-LEDS, NDCs, and development plans, and robust monitoring and evaluation systems supported by data and indicators.
India’s LT-LED presents a balanced, equitable, and development-oriented approach to long-term transition. It reflects a commitment to global climate goals while ensuring that climate action supports economic growth, poverty eradication, energy access, and social inclusion. Looking ahead, India looks forward to future engagement with GGGI and other international partners in advancing a just, inclusive, nationally appropriate low-carbon transition.
